1.1 Current Exam Facts

The Florida Class D Security Officer Exam: What the Rule Actually Requires

Quick Answer: Florida's Class D unarmed security officer exam is governed by Rule 5N-1.140, Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.), and Chapter 493, Florida Statutes (F.S.). The current rule requires 170 total questions covering the full 40-hour Security Officer Training Curriculum Guide (FDACS-P-01878, Rev. 11/2018), administered as a single examination or as multiple examinations (the familiar Course A + Course B split) that together total 170. You need 128 correct answers to pass, testing must run for not less than 2 hours, and no more than 50% of the questions in any one subject area may be true/false. Schools must issue your Certificate of Security Officer Training on Form FDACS-16103 within 3 business days of successful completion.

The Legal Foundation You're Actually Being Tested On

Every fact in this study guide traces back to two legal sources, and knowing them by name is itself testable material:

• Chapter 493, Florida Statutes — the Florida Private Security, Investigative, and Repossession Services Act. This is the underlying law that creates security officer licensing, defines Class D and Class G, and sets out disqualifying conduct.
• Rule 5N-1.140, Florida Administrative Code — titled Security Officer, Recovery Agent and Private Investigative Intern School Curriculum; Examinations; Retention of Records. This rule, adopted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), is where the 40-hour training requirement, the 170-question exam, and the 128-correct passing score all live.

Think of Chapter 493 as the why — the statute that authorizes licensing in the first place — and Rule 5N-1.140 as the how — the specific training and testing mechanics FDACS enforces day to day.

The Curriculum You Trained On Is the Curriculum You're Tested On

Rule 5N-1.140(1)(a) requires every Class DS-licensed security officer school to teach from the Security Officer Training Curriculum Guide, FDACS-P-01878 (Rev. 11/2018) — no substitutions, no shortcuts. This guide lays out 40 hours of instruction across a defined set of subject areas (legal aspects, patrol procedures, emergency preparedness, medical response, and more — you'll map every one of them to its exam weight in section 1.3). Because the exam is built directly from this guide, the 40 hours you sit through in class are not a formality; they are the literal source material your final exam draws its 170 questions from.

What the Exam Actually Looks Like

Two design details are worth memorizing because they're easy to misread. First, the 50%-true/false cap applies per subject area, not to the exam as a whole — a school can't dodge the rule by loading true/false questions into one topic while another topic gets nothing but multiple choice; each subject area is capped individually. Second, not less than 2 hours is a floor, not a ceiling — the rule guarantees you won't be rushed through 170 questions in a few minutes, but a school may allow more time if it chooses.

After You Pass: The Certificate That Unlocks Everything Else

Passing the exam by itself does not make you licensed. Once you clear 128 correct answers, your training school has 3 business days to issue your Certificate of Security Officer Training on Form FDACS-16103. That certificate — not a passing-score printout — is the document FDACS requires when you submit your actual Class D license application (covered in section 1.2). Losing or forgetting this certificate is one of the most common reasons applications get delayed, so treat it as a permanent record, not a throwaway receipt.

Class D vs. Class G: Same Training Path, Different Duty

The Class D license created by this exam authorizes unarmed security officer duty only. If your job — current or future — involves carrying a firearm while on post, Class D is necessary but not sufficient. You must separately earn the Class G statewide firearms license, which layers additional firearms-specific training and range qualification on top of your Class D. Every Class G holder must also hold a current Class D; there is no firearms-only shortcut that skips the unarmed license.

A Note on Course A and Course B — Two Delivery Formats, One Passing Score

Some training materials and third-party study sites describe the assessment as two separate tests — a 100-question Course A exam and a 70-question Course B exam — while others describe a single 170-question exam. Both descriptions can be accurate, because Rule 5N-1.140(1)(b) uses the term "examination(s)" — deliberately permitting schools to administer the testing either as one 170-question exam or as multiple examinations (commonly the Course A + Course B split) that together total 170 questions. What the rule fixes is not the delivery format but the totals and the passing threshold: 170 questions in total, drawn from the 18 subject areas of the curriculum guide, with 128 correct answers as the single passing score.

The error to avoid is the claim some third-party sites make that you must score 75% on Course A and 75% on Course B separately. The rule does not say that. It sets one passing score — 128 correct answers out of 170 — regardless of whether your school administers the test in one sitting or in two. So if your school uses the Course A/Course B format, treat the two parts as a combined 170-question test and aim for 128 correct overall, not 75% on each part in isolation. If your school uses a single 170-question exam, the same 128-correct standard applies. Either way, the curriculum content, the 50%-true/false-per-subject-area cap, the ≥2-hour testing floor, and the Form FDACS-16103 certificate process are identical.

Official Resources

• FDACS Class D Security Officer License Requirements — official eligibility and application instructions
• Rule 5N-1.140, F.A.C. (Cornell Legal Information Institute) — full rule text on curriculum, examinations, and records
• FDACS Division of Licensing — general licensing division contact and forms